I took Europe’s last Soviet sleeper train to a country that doesn’t exist

The Soviet sleeper train takes passengers back in time (Picture: Sam Russell)

It’s the middle of the night, and our train has stopped in Ungheni, a Moldovan city on the border with Romania.

Not to let passengers on or off, but because we’re on Europe’s last Soviet sleeper train — and Moldova’s rail network still does things like it did back in the USSR.

We’re on the Prietenia train, or ‘Friendship train’ in Romanian.

The countries are close allies, sharing deep cultural, linguistic, and historical ties....